Wilder Hall’s New “E-sports Arena”: Just What Students Need?
By William Hurst, Contributor
Illustration by Jerry Atrick, Contributor
Wilder Hall, the most perpetually in-flux spot on campus, will soon be home to an all-new “e-sports arena”. While the exact specifics of location remain murky, it is known that there will be a designated space on the third floor of Wilder where an array of desktop computers and consoles will be present for students to play video games competitively with each other; presumably, given its status. This is all expected to be completed after the planned renovation of Wilder Hall this summer.
Now, I don’t know about you, but I can’t picture this being something that is all that necessary. Maybe it’s my knee-jerk reaction to the absurd marketing label of “arena” being applied to a room in Wilder Hall, or my general distaste for whatever big competitive multiplayer game is currently in fashion, but I just don’t see this as being something that needs a big, official, college-sanctioned space. When the pitch for a feature on an “e-sports arena” was first announced, practically everyone in the room chuckled, and there was a general mood of bemusement with regards to what exactly this thing even was. Despite this initial reaction, I was curious to find out what people on campus actually thought. Unfortunately, I struggled to find people interested in giving their opinions about it; I suppose I can’t blame anyone for not having any fleshed out opinions about the arena, given what I would soon learn.
About two weeks ago, I blurted out my assignment to write about this unusual development to a group of people I was walking with one evening, only to find that one of them was, in fact, a member of the e-sports club on campus. Mind you, this was just after I had loudly said “ee-sports uh-ree-na” in a mocking, squirrely tone, and somewhat tasteless joke about a bunch of Polish Counter-Strike players on speed being the only thing that could make Wilder even messier than it already it is. I almost melted in embarrassment. Stopping myself to explain what I was writing about, and that I still needed to look into the project in order to have an opinion, I soon realized that I hadn’t really humiliated myself at all: this person, despite their membership in the e-sports club, had never heard of this “arena” project before.
Wait. If people in the e-sports club are apparently unaware of this “arena”, then who exactly is it for? I had presumed for there to be some sort of significant student push for such an installation; after all, isn’t this supposed to be for the student body’s enjoyment? I’m certain that one student was aware of this project before this was written, but I am not aware of a single other. This is all very mysterious. Well, not really – the reasons behind this disconnect are almost certainly quite boring. You see, Oberlin College as an institution is pretty terrible at justifying any of the decisions that it makes to students– even when the explanation of why people should care is stupidly easy. Indeed, I feel that this whole situation is emblematic of a larger issue, in spite of its somewhat trivial nature. I don’t really need to name any specific changes made over the course of the past year to know that many decisions made by the administration are apparently based on enigmatic justifications seemingly only understood by them. Of course, the real reason for most of these decisions is known by just about everyone: money, and more money by way of wooing more students to apply. Any lack of existing student demand is totally negated by the fact that the admin probably thinks that having a fancy-sounding e-sports venue is flashy enough to appeal to more students.
Is it necessarily a bad thing that the administration is so interested in raking in cash and expanding? I don’t think so at all. God knows that Oberlin College & Conservatory, with all its departments and resources, cannot be run on the mere goodwill of a few wealthy alumni. The problem arises in, as is common with such things, the process of going about it. Do I have a neat RAND Corporation report showing that an e-sports arena is not exactly what students are clamoring for? No, but one can easily see that there are several existing student orgs and spaces on campus that, despite strong existing student support for them, have dealt with issues regarding the admin’s support. Recently, it was noted in the Review that WOBC is dealing with issues with getting back on the air, and are dealing with the prospect of losing their broadcasting license entirely. While it does not necessarily need to be a question of one or the other, it is perplexing that the admin is trying to jumpstart new student spaces without even getting the relevant group of students involved, instead of focusing on saving and maintaining existing ones with proven student support.
Beyond all of the potentially valid criticisms one could make about this project, all of this e-sports arena stuff is worth considering mainly for one reason: it is pretty goddamn funny. Anyone who has been in Wilder Hall would struggle to think of it as a space for something so sleek and modern as an e-sports competition. Between the dark, cobwebbed corners, the general air of old, musty-carpet 20th-century America, and the structural instability of the place, Wilder is far and away the most haunted building on campus. One can easily imagine an intensive game of Super Smash Bros. interrupted by players unable to focus as a result of the smell of the, uh, “grease” from downstairs, or, more likely, one of the wires in the building exploding, forcing everyone to mime out the rest of the game. But who knows: maybe this upcoming renovation will transform Wilder into a sleek, modern tech-base, complete with all of the gadgets and knick-knacks that anyone could possibly want. Even then, it’s probably a fifty-fifty chance on whether the building ever gets sufficient structural support.
